Bookbinders cover material



March 23, 1965 R. P. TRUE ETAL. 3,174,773

BOOKBINDERS COVER MATERIAL Filed Feb. 12, 1963 United States Patent on ice 3,.l7dfl73 Patented Mar. 23, 1965 3,174,773 BOOKBINDERS COVER MA'lERlAL Richard P. True, ll rentham, Mass, and Joseph E. North, In, Lincoln, R.ll., assignors to pecial Fabrics, Inc, Saylesville, 11.1., a corporation of Rhode Island Filed Feb. 12, 1963, Ser. No. 258,013 2 Claims. (Cl. 281-2fi) The present invention relates to the binding of cloth bound books and more particularly to an improved bookbinders cover material suitable for use as a bookbinders cloth, and to the manufacture of such material and of book covers, known as cases, made therefrom.

A principal use for the bookbinders cover material of the invention is in the binding of hard bound books. Hard bound books are bound in a cover or case comprising sheets of heavy cardboard-like material, known as bookbinders board, covered on their outer faces with a sheet material, referred to herein as bookbinders cloth. Traditionally, the book title, and until recent times any cover decoration as well, was applied by the binder by printing or stamping on the cover itself or on the book, after the plain colored bookbinders cloth had been applied to the bookbinders board. Recent years have seen a growing use of covers which have thereon a decorative design, in addition to the title. As a part of this development, the bookbinders cloth, as supplied to the binder, is increasingly printed in advance, after cloth finishing but before cover making, with at least the decorative design, such advance printing greatly increasing efficiency as contrasted with separate application by the binder of a cover design to each individual cover.

The printing procedures available for such advance use, and the resulting bookbinders cloth, have however, suffered from various faults and disadvantages. In some cases the printed matter, due to its superficial nature, is unduly susceptible to rapid wear and obliteration by abrasion and scratching, or, use of the decorated cloth requires subsequent, extra, costly coating operation; or the cloth cannot be used with web-fed case making equipment, as it can be printed only in individual sheets. In other instances there is a serious limitation on the use of such printed cloth in web or roll form because the lack of dimensional stability of the cloth introduces the hazard of distortion of the design during printing or subsequent processing, so that the cloth cannot be provided with lettering which must appear in a certain position on all the covers, such as a title, or with designs including straight lines, or cannot be used with webfed cover making equipment if the design is such that accurate registry of the design on the cover is required. Various efforts to overcome the last-mentioned limitation by stiffening or stabilizing of the base cloth itself were partially or entirely failures, due to interference with effective printing or other undesired etfects. Efforts to eliminate certain of these faults and disadvantages only introduced or worsened others. As a consequence it has until the present time been necessary for the bookbinder to apply at least the title to the book cover after the cover has been formed from the bookbinders cloth and the bookbinders board, where it is required that the title be in the same position on all covers, as is the able objective, so far as we are aware, has not heretofore been attained.

The present invention has as an object to provide a bookbinders cloth, and method of making the same, which is free from the above mentioned disadvantages.

A further object of the invention is to provide a bookbinders cloth, suitable for the binding of cloth bound books, which is preprinted before it is supplied to the bookbinder with a complete book cover design including the title indicia.

A further object of the invention is to provide a prerinted bookbinders cloth wherein the design thereon is of highly durable nature and comprises the complete cover design including the title.

A further object of the invention is to provide a preprinted bookbinders cloth in roll or web form which includes a complete and durable cover decoration and title and which is substantially dimensionally stable and may bear register marks, registering with blocks of printing thereon each forming a book cover unit, for subsequent registry of the block with the bookbinders board, as in the formation by web-fed equipment of individual book covers from a web of such cloth.

A further object is to provide improved methods of making cloth bound book covers employing a preprinted web of bookbinders cloth.

A further object is to provide improved book covers and cloth bound books formed therefrom.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of illustrative embodiments of and methods in accordance with the invention, wherein reference is made to the accompanying drawing, in which FIG. 1 is a View in perspective of the bookbinders cloth;

FIG. 2 is a view in perspective of a book cover or case embodying the cloth of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on line 33 of FIG. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating successive steps in processes of the invention.

In accordance with the invention, we provide a bookbinders cloth, for use in the binding of cloth bound books, comprising a composite sheet material including a layer of a textile fabric, a layer of a substantially dimensionally stable paper material united to one face of said fabric, and a complete and durable book cover design, including the title indicia and all cover decoration, visible on the exposed face of and embedded in the fabric, the exposed face of the fabric bearing a coating or impregnation of a transparent protective finishing material overlying said design. The bookbinders cloth may be and preferably is made in the form of a web, continuously printed, by rotary or other web-fed printing procedures, with blocks of printing, each block including a complete design for one book cover and in cluding a registry mark to be sensed by photoelectric registry control apparatus during the formation of book covers or cases by web-fed case making equipment.

Referring to the drawing, the illustrative bookbinders cloth 2 of the invention, FIG. 1, includes a layer of a textile fabric 4 and a layer of a paper material 6. The textile fabric 4 may be any uncoated and preferably unsized suitable base fabric, woven or non-woven, of natural or synthetic fibers, as required to meet the pertinent specifications, such as a raw, pure bleached woven cotton cloth.

The textile fabric 4- and the paper material 6 are united with an adhesive material which forms an adhesive bond sutliciently secure and permanent to insure that the two layers of material are carried together through the operations of printing, applying of a finish coating, and formation of the book covers, and remain united throughout the useful life of the book. The adhesive may be any such adhesive material suitable for use with cloth and paper, such as glue, adhesives formed from synthetic rubbers or resins, or any other appropriate adhesive material. I

The paper material 6 may be any suitable paper having sufiicient strength, when combined with the fabric 4, to withstand the web-feeding and other procedures involved in the combining, printing, coating and cover forming operations, and having sufiicient dimensional stability, greater than that of the fabric 4, to prevent undesired distortion of the cover design, including the title indicia and any straight line elements of the decoration, during printing, and to preserve the so-printed design during such subsequent operations. Paper material having these properties is referred to herein as substantially dimensionally stable. 7

The fabric layer 4 is printed with the desired cover design which may include any decoration 8 specified bythe cover designer, including over-all patterns. The printing of the design also includes the printing of a complete book title indicia 10. Both title and decoration are formed from an ink which penetrates into the uncoated and unsized textile fabric 4 so that the decoration and the title indicia are incorporated in the material of the fabric and embedded therein beneath the exposed surface of the fabric, on which they are visible. The ink which forms the title and decoration, being penetrated into and embedded in the material of the textile fabric, provides a highly durable and permanent design, as permanent as the cloth itself, as it is not readily susceptible to wearing and obliteration by abrasion and scratching in the normal use of the book. The term ink as used herein includes not only materials which are commonly known as inks but also dyes, pigment suspensions, and any other suitable material contrasting in appearance with the fabric 4 to form a design thereon.

The printing operation is carried out subsequent to combining of the textile fabric layer 4 and the paper layer 6. During this operation and all subsequent op erations the paper layer 6 serves as a stiifening and stabilizing medium for the composite sheet 2, sufficiently preserving the dimensional stability of the composite sheet so that when it is finally assembled into the book cover its intended dimensions and the form, size and relationship to each other of all of the printed items are preserved substantially in their intended, original form and proper registry of the cover design on the cover is attained. tageous and its presence, further, lends opacity or density to the design itself.

After the fabric layer 4 has been provided with the title indicia 10 and the decoration 8 its entire exposed surface is treated or impregnated with a coating 12 of a transparent protective material which overlies the title and decorative material and further protects the same from damage while leaving it clearly visible. Any of the conventional book .cover finishes, e.g., nitro-cellulose lacquers or vinyl or other resin coating materials, if adequately transparent, may be employed. Reference herein to a finish coating which is transparent is not intended to exclude coatings which are translucent or semi-opaque, provided they are sufficiently transparent for the purpose of affording satisfactory visibility of the underlying design.

It will be understood that the composite material 2 will preferably be formed as a continuous web from continuous webs of textile fabric 4 and paper material 6, which will be combined in a continuous operation, by procedures well known in the art, and the title and decorative matter may be disposed on the continuous web of composite sheet material 2 in the form of blocks, each block containing the complete design for one book cover.

The paper layer 6 is in no way disadvan- The bookbinders cloth is employed in the manufacture of book covers to provide a cover or case 14 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The bookbinders cloth 2 is assembled in the conventional manner with sheets of bookbinders board 16, overlying the outer faces thereof and having its turn-ins 18 turned in over the top and bottom edges of the board 16, as shown. The usual liner sheets 20 are applied on the inside faces of the covers, overlapping the turns-ins 18 of the bookbinders cloth. As appears in FIGS. 2 and 3, the outermost layer 12 of the composite 2 is disposed on the outside of the cover and the paper layer 6 is disposed next to the bookbinders board 16.

Due to the dimensional stability of the bookbinders cloth of the invention it is possible to supply this bookbinders cloth to case making equipment as a continuous web and to accurately register the blocks of cover design with the other components of the covers to form a completed cover wherein the book title and any decoration are accurately registered on the cover. For this purpose appropriate register marks 22 for use with electric eye registry control equipment can be printed on the web simultaneously with the printing of the cover designs and thus are accurately registered with each block of cover design which is to appear on a single cover.

Referring to FIG. 4, the manufacture of the bookbinders cloth can conveniently be carried out by supplying the fabric 4 and the paper material 6 from supply rolls continuously to adhesive supplying and combining apparatus. In the schematic illustration of FIG. 4, the paper material 6 is supplied from a supply roll 24 from which its upper face passes into contact with an adhesive applying roll 26. The textile fabric4 is supplied from a supply roll 28, its lower face passing into contact with the adhesive coated upper face of the paper 6. The two webs then are passed together into suitable combining apparatus, illustrated as a roll pair 30, which unites the web of paper 6 to the web of textile fabric 4. The combined sheet material 32 is then normally rolled up at 34. The rolls 34 are transferred to appropirate printing apparatus 36 and continuously printed following which the printed material 38 is wound into rolls at 40. The rolls 40 are transferred to suitable coating apparatus 42 by which the printed material is top-coated or impregnated with the transparent protective layer 12. Following these operations, the composite sheet material 2 will normally be wound into a roll 44 for storage and shipment to the'bookbinder. The printing operation at 36 applies blocks of printed indicia, each block comprising a complete cover design for a single cover, including the book title, and an appropriate registry mark for later use in forming the book covers. There may be more than one block Widthwise of the web.

While we have described the combining, printing and top-coating operations as separate operations, it is not intended thereby to exclude the carrying out of these operations as one continuous process on a traveling web, without rolling up the web between the operations.

The web 2, after it is coated at 42, may be separated into individual sheets, each sheet containing one block of printing for use with sheet-fed case making equipment, if desired, in which case the registry marks 22 may be made use of in locating the lines on which the web is cut.

At the bindery, the roll of bookbinders cloth 44, or a narrower web slit therefrom, may be continuously fed to case making equipment 46, to which sheets of bookbinders board 16 also are fed. In thisequipment the registry marks 22 are sensed by suitable photoelectric register control apparatus to control the registration of the bookbinders board 16 with the blocks of indicia on the bookbinders cloth. In the course of the manufacture of the cover at 46 the web of bookbinders cloth 1s severed between adjacent blocks of cover desl and he bOOk GOvers or cases 14 are completed.

By the use of the bookbinders cloth of the invention the need for title applying and coating operations by the bookbinder is entirely eliminated as the bookbinders cloth of the invention is provided with the complete cover design including all decoration and the title.

Cover designs including lettering and straight lines may be preprinted on the cloth by various web-fed printing procedures and equipment, utilizing either textile or paper printing processes.

The bookbinders cloth of the invention is not confined to use with sheet-fed cover making equipment as, due to its dimensional stability, it may be formed in a continuous web, and may be fed as a Web to the case making equipment and accurately register therein to fit each preprinted cover design accurately to the components of each cover as the cover is formed. The bookbinders cloth of the invention also is useful in making book covers which do not include binders board.

The title indicia and the decoration of the cover are dicia visible on the exposed face of said fabric formed directly on said fabric from an ink which penetrates into and is embedded in said fabric, and a transparent protective finishing material adhered directly to the exposed face of said fabric and overlying said design.

2. A hard bound book including leaves and a cover, said cover including a bookbinders board and a sheet of a bookbinders cloth overlying the outside face of said bookbinders board, said bookbinders cloth comprising a layer of an uncoated Woven cotton fabric, a layer of a substantially dimensionally stable paper material united to one face of said fabric, a complete book cover design including title indicia visible on the exposed face of said fabric and formed directly on said fabric from an ink which penetrates into and is embedded in said fabric, and a transparent protective finishing material adhered directly to the exposed face of said fabric and overlying said indicia, the bookbinders cloth being assembled with the book'oinders board with its paper side highly durable and permanent as they are both embedded 20 next to the board.

or imprinted into the material of the fabric 4 and disposed beneath the finish 12. This protective impregnation or coating (finish 12) being applied by the cloth manufacturer only thus eliminates any subsequent treatment before or after case making.

What is claimed is:

1. A composite sheet material suitable for use as a bookbinders cloth in making book covers for cloth bound books to form a completed book cover with a complete cover design including the title indicia and any required cover decoration, Without the use by the bookbinder of printing or coating operations, comprising a layer of an uncoated textile fabric, a layer of a substantially dimensionally stable paper material united to one face of said fabric, a complete book cover design including title in- References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS JEROME SCHNALL, Primary Examiner.

LAWRENCE CHARLES, Examiner. 

1. A COMPOSITE SHEET MATERIAL SUITABLE FOR USE AS A BOOKBINDER''S CLOTH IN MAKING BOOK COVERS FOR CLOTH BOUND BOOKS TO FORM A COMPLETED BOOK COVER WITH A COMPLETE COVER DESIGN INCLUDING THE TITLE INDICIA AND ANY REQUIRED COVER DECORATION, WITHOUT THE USE BY THE BOOKBINDER OF PRINTING OR COATING OPERATIONS, COMPRISING A LAYER OF AN UNCOATED TEXTILE FABRIC, A LAYER OF A SUBSTANTIALLY DIMENSIONALLY STABLE PAPER MATERIAL UNITED TO ONE FACE OF SAID FABRIC, A COMPLETE BOOK COVER DESIGN INCLUDING TITLE INDICIAS VISIBLE ON THE EXPOSED FACE OF SAID FABRIC FORMED DIRECTLY ON SAID FABRIC FROM AN INK WHICH PENETRATES INTO AND IS EMBEDDED IN SAID FABRIC, AND A TRANSPARENT 